How to deal with nurses who make fun of families

[texobnurse]

One of the nurses in our nicu was quietly making fun of a dad who was doing skin to skin with his 35 weeker. He had been doing it all day so I told him I thought it was a great idea. She was relentless and when the dad left, she called him gay and that what he was doing was gay. She even had the nerve to bring in a respiratory therapist to validate what she was saying. To make matters even worse, I was mentoring a nursing student who was finishing up her last shift with me before graduating from nursing school. This young nurse had to hear this arguement about fathers who want to do kangaroo care. The RT (guy) agreed and said it was very gay. They laughed about it and kept saying he was gay and it was gay. He also said he bet the dad probably liked to show off his body to the female nurses on the unit and thats why he was doing it. The RT then said nipples were for "pleasure, why else would guys have sensation in them." I called him a misogonist and told them both to stop. Eventually, another set of parents came in so they did stop. The next time I worked with this nurse, she saw me going in to speak with our manager. She asked me what I talked about. When I told her that I told our manager what they had done, she said they were just joking. She also asked me if I thought they traumatized my nursing student. She insisted she was just joking. I checked the harassment policy at our unit and even joking about that is considered sexual harassment. When I mentioned this to another nurse who wasn't there when this happened, she said I should file a complaint through human resources. We both agreed they were out of line and at least need some sensitivity training. Has something like this ever happened on your units? I don't want to make trouble with staff I have to work with.

[navynurse06]

Wow...I just can't believe this....those types of comments are unprofessional and immature. I would like to know what the out come of you reporting this to your nurse manager. Also, how long as this person been a nurse? And does she not know the benefits of skin to skin? There is a big difference between joking and just being unprofessional. Keep us updated on this one.

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

I've had grandfathers do kangaroo care. Seems someone left their maturity in junior high.